Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) was a Spanish Painter from Valencia who excelled in painting portraits, landscapes, and social themes. One of his paintings, Sad Inheritance depicted crippled children bathing at the sea and earned Joaquín great recognition. He expertly depicted shimmering light and other lighting effects in his paintings. Other notable paintings included the Portrait of Dr. Simarro at the microscope and research which linked art and science. Although not as creative as other genres, Sorolla painted a large number of portraits which was a profitable endeavor in that era. Our pattern set for Joaquín Sorolla includes a broad set of paintings including Children on the Seashore, Sad Inheritance, Another Marguerite, Portrait of Mr. Taft, Portrait of Lawyer Don Silverio de la Torre y Agua, Valenican Fishergirl, Castle of La Mota Medina del Camp, The Virgin Mary, Portrait of Dr. Simarro at the Microscope, and Beach at Valencia.

Magical Mushrooms

Mushrooms (also called toadstools) are fungi that grow on the ground on top of its food source. Mushrooms have a short stem, cap, and gills or pores on the underside of the cap. Some mushrooms are editable; others poisonous. A few types of mushrooms are used for medical purposes while others contain psychedelic properties. They are also used for dyeing wood and other fibers and for filtering contaminated water. Our mushroom pattern sets contains images of numerous mushrooms in their natural setting. You’ll find patterns of mushrooms in different shapes and colors, taken from various angles including some great details of their under neigh pores.

Skyscrapers are far from ordinary, but an architectural firm in London is really thinking outside the box. They recently entered and won the Skyscrapers and SuperSkyscrapers Competition. Their proposal, titled "The Endless City in Height," is not your average high-rise. Rather than having the floors stacked in even rows, some levels protrude from the base of the building to hover sturdily over London.

While zoning requirements may change the skyscraper from its original design, the intent of this building goes beyond what you see at first glance. The skyscraper's mismatched floors actually allow sunlight into the tower so that parks and plazas can exist "inside" the building. Aside from shock value, the greatest benefit of the Endless City is its green-friendly features.

Artists don't always live by earth's standards, but artist Azume Makoto from Tokyo takes defiance to a new level. Actually, he takes his art to outer space. Literally.

In his project "EXOBIOTANICA," Makoto is putting plants and flowers into space, where he is taking pictures of them with Go Pro cameras.

He explained the inspiration for this project to The Huffington Post, saying, "I wanted to explore how flowers and plants would bloom, decay and change outside of the earth. I wanted to seek and tell how their beauties will look with the earth as its background."

1) What Mexican muralist made a famous mural in Philadelphia?

David Alfaro Siqueiros

José Clemente Oroco

Diego Rivera

Ramón Alva de la Canal

2) Who is Ecuador's most famous artist?

Luis Gomez Alban

Oswaldo Guayasamín

Xavier Patiño

Rafael Troya

3) What is the most famous museum in Spain?

Reina Sofia Art Center

Art Museum of Catlonia

El Prado

Pablo Picasso Museum in Malaga

4) What style of painting is Salvador Dalí famous for?

Surrealism

Impressionism

Fauvism

Cubism

5) Which Mexican artist painted a mural at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire?

Juan Clemente Osorio

Ángel Zárraga

Alfonso Michel

Dr. Atl

Answer Key:

C

B

C

A

A

Joaquín Sorolla - The World-renowned Spanish Painter

Valencia was center stage for world-renowned artist Joaquín Sorolla. Though the Spanish painter's career afforded him a life of worldwide travel and notoriety, the passion that fueled his art was his homeland. Through his portrait art and landscape paintings, he explored people, locations and historical scenes familiar to Spaniards and captivating to foreigners.

Sorolla's career, like his personal life, seemed very fulfilling. By the time he reached 30 years of age, he had already received national recognition for his artwork and was approaching an era of worldwide fame. In the following years, his work was exhibited in art capitals like Madrid, Paris, Venice, Munich, Berlin and Chicago. When he was only 40-years-old, he was donning major awards and became known as one of the "western world's greatest living artists."

His list of accomplishments is great but, when realizing he started life as an orphan, born in 1863, the heights of his fame seem that much greater. Joaquín Sorolla was only two years old when, it is believed, his parents passed away from cholera. At that time, he and his sister went into the care of his maternal aunt and uncle.

Whatever obstacles he faced were quickly overcome as he showed much artistic talent by age nine. At 14 he was studying art with teachers Cayetano Capuz and Salustiano Asenjo. His first awards started coming at age 15, from the Academy of Valencia. This may have been the reason he was able to travel to Madrid when he was 18 to study painting at the infamous Spanish Museum, El Prado.

After dedicating some time to his studies, Sorolla served in the military. But by age 22 he was freed from his duty and found himself painting in Rome, Italy. He followed this trip with a long stay in Paris where he was likely exposed to modern paintings by Jules Bastien-Lepage and Adolf von Menzel.

In 1888, Sorolla returned to Valencia to marry the daughter of photographer Antonio Garcia. Before long, he and his wife, Clotilde, had three children: Maria, Joaquín and Elena.

Sorolla's career took him and his flourishing family to Madrid. It was there that his career began to take stride. During this era of life, his art was predominately focused on social subjects and historical happenings, as well as concepts that were considered mythological and oriental. He painted these works on large canvases and began to showcase them around the world.

It could be said that Sorolla had a "big break" in 1893 when he submitted his work to the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. From there, in year 1900, he displayed art at Paris Universal Exhibition. Later, he was asked to showcase artwork at the Hispanic Society of New York, which would take Sorolla's work on a tour of the United States. As a result of this honor, Joaquín Sorolla was invited to the White House where he sat President Taft for a portrait.

In 1911, the Spanish painter was asked by the Hispanic Society of America to create a large piece of art displaying the customs and cultures that existed in various parts of Spain. Sorolla would spend the next eight years of his life consumed by this project before suffering a severe stroke.

Three years after his stroke, Sorolla passed away on August 10, 1923.

Today, the memory of Joaquín Sorolla lives on in art history. Unfortunately, some of his admirers believe he is not as famous as he ought to be. Aside from his little notoriety in the new millennium, the Spanish painter far surpassed the life that most orphans lived at the turn of the century. From his birth in 1863 to death in 1923, Joaquín Sorolla used his natural talent, drive and skill to promote his art and native land for the world to see.

You probably have a favorite color, but chances are you rarely stop to think about why you are drawn to this particular hue.

It is likely that your preference stems from personal tastes and the culture that surrounds you. After all, we develop color affinities at young ages. For instance, to make conversation with a child, it is common to ask, “What is your favorite color?” Therefore, it makes sense to think that these hues have an influence on our personalities as we age too. According to some psychologists and color experts, our favorite colors reflect parts of our personalities, but how?

For years, psychologists have been claiming that people are drawn to choice shades for particular reasons. This means that, whether you know it or not, there is good reason why your favorite color is your favorite color.